Japanese whalers return to the Antarctic!

The Japan Fisheries Agency says the trip’s use of $28 million from the earthquake recovery fund is legitimate, because one of the towns devastated by the March earthquake and tsunami was a whaling port…

Japan say it will have extra security for the trip this year, which is needed to protect a legitimate “scientific” enterprise.

The Japan Fisheries Agency issued a statement to AM saying the Japanese government’s aim for the whaling voyage is “to get the scientific data”.

When they say “beefed up security,” they mean a previously unacknowledged Coast Guard presence:

Coastguard officers travelled aboard the fleet in the 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 seasons, but did not announce their presence beforehand.

“We have decided to beef up security as never before,” a coastguard official told Japanese media.

So you’ve got the Japanese openly sending military personnel to defend a lethal whaling program in an internationally protected wildlife sanctuary and the Sea Shepherds, an increasingly militarized activist organization, pitted against them in what looks ever more like naval warfare.